1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for recognizing at least two language input modes for keystrokes input to a device equipped with a keyboard or a keypad and a method and apparatus for automatically switching language input modes using the method and apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
When using an application program that supports both Korean and English input modes, a user is generally required to switch a current language input mode into either the Korean or the English input mode by using a Korean/English shift key disposed on a keyboard if the current language input mode is different from a language input mode the user desires. It is inconvenient for the user to press the Korean/English shift key whenever it is necessary to switch the current language input mode into either the Korean or English input mode.
In recent years, more people are accessing the Internet than ever before. In order to input an Internet domain address or a search keyword to an application program, such as a web browser program or a search engine, a user is required to type in Korean or English characters or both. In doing so, the user should check first whether a current language input mode is a Korean input mode or English input mode by using a keyboard and then press a Korean/English shift key disposed on the keyboard in order to switch the current language input mode into any desired one of the Korean and English input modes, if the current language input mode is different from the desired language input mode. If the user does not realize that the current language input mode is not the desired language input mode until a few language characters have already been typed, the user has to rewrite, in the desired language input mode, all of the language characters were already typed in, which is very inconvenient and time consuming.
For example, a user often types in an Internet domain address or a search keyword in a web browser program without determining whether the current language input mode is a Korean input mode or an English input mode, in which case the user is more likely to end up typing in the Internet domain address or the search keyword in a wrong language input mode. Therefore, for example, even though the user intends to type in “www.hangul.com”, “..” may show up on a screen if the current language input mode is the Korean input mode. In this case, the user has to delete all of the Korean characters that were accidentally typed in, shift the current language input mode into the English input mode, and type in the desired Internet domain address in the English input mode.
In order to solve the inconvenience of the related art that requires a user to manually switch language input modes between Korean and English input modes to keystroke in a different language input mode from a current language input mode while creating a document, a function of automatically switching the language input mode between the Korean and English input modes (hereinafter, referred to as conventional automatic language input mode switching function). The conventional automatic language input mode switching function has been recently added to many word processing programs and is provided by Hannsoft Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., or Microsoft Inc. etc. By using the conventional automatic language input mode switching function, characters accidentally typed in the wrong language input mode can be automatically converted into their respective counterparts in a desired language input mode. In the conventional automatic language input mode switching function, however, the user is still required to hit a predetermined key, such as a spacebar or enter key, to convert the characters typed in the wrong language input mode into their respective counterparts in the desired language input mode. In addition, once the conventional automatic language input mode switching function is turned on, even characters typed in the desired language input mode may be indiscriminately converted into their respective counterparts in the wrong language input mode whenever the user presses the predetermined key, which is undesirable and inconvenient. Currently, the application of the conventional automatic language input mode switching function is restricted to such application programs as word processing programs, and the performance of the conventional automatic language input mode switching function is highly dependent on the capacity of an electronic dictionary provided for the corresponding function. Therefore, the effectiveness of the conventional automatic language input mode switching function is dependent on many external factors.